Please provide an anonymized list of the 25 staff who were off work in 2016/17 for the longest time due to sickness (staff member 1,2,3,etc. ) Specify the number of working days each of them was off sick.

I am also interested in the job titles of the 25 sick staff. If it is not possible to provide the job titles of each individual anonymized staff member, please provide the information in another way which does not link particular job titles with a specific periods of absence. For example, 10 case officers, 5 human resources, 5 project officers, 5 customer services.

Yours faithfully,

D Moore

informationrights@ombudsman.org.uk,
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
30 July 2017

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Compared to the sickness level of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, the PHSO would appear to be in a very bad place:

"During the year, an average of 4.0 days per employee were lost through sickness compared with 5.6 days in 2015/16. This is the equivalent of 1.5% (2.0% in 2015/16) of total possible workdays.

In previous years pregnancy and maternity related sickness was excluded from the reported figures as these absences must, by law, be recorded separately. Whilst still recorded separately, for consistency with the approach in Office of National Statistics reports, pregnancy and maternity related sickness has now been included in the figures above. Figures (above) for 2015/16 have therefore been adjusted from those reported last year, so that they are shown on the same basis as the figures for 2016/17." (page 62)

1 Attachment

I write in response to your email of 1 August 2017 in regards to your
request for information held by the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman (PHSO) in which you asked the following:

Please provide an anonymized list of the 25 staff who were off work in
2016/17 for the longest time due to sickness (staff member 1,2,3,etc. )
Specify the number of working days each of them was off sick.

I am also interested in the job titles of the 25 sick staff. If it is
not possible to provide the job titles of each individual anonymized staff
member, please provide the information in another way which does not link
particular job titles with a specific periods of absence. For example, 10
case officers, 5 human resources, 5 project officers, 5 customer services.

Our response:

Please see the attached file in response to your request.

If you believe I have made an error in the way I have processed your
information request, it is open to you to request an internal review. You
can do this by sending an email to
[1][Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman request email]. You will need to specify what the
nature of the issue is and we can consider the matter further. Beyond
that, it is open to you to complain to the Information Commissioner’s
Office ([2]www.ico.org.uk).

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information/Data Protection Officer

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

W: [3]www.ombudsman.org.uk

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2. Of the 394 formal service complaints upheld, please specify how many
relate to the single member of staff who received the most complaints.

""During 2016-17, six internal audit reviews were considered by the Audit
and Risk Assurance Committee. There was additionally an advisory audit on
review processes and complaints about us."" P 44

3. Please provide a copy of the advisory audit on review processes and
complaints.

In the business year 2015/16 you received 1,969 requests for review (a
figure which excluded complaints about your service, post review
correspondence and longstanding complaints). I have not seen a comparable
figure in you Annual Report for 2016/17.

4. Please provide the number of requests for review you received in the
business year 2016/17 (excluding complaints about your service, post
review correspondence and longstanding complaints). "

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) does not hold
recorded information in the format requested.

As you know, in 2016-17 we received a total of 3,426 complaints; 676
formal service complaints and 394 of these were upheld but we do not hold
information relating to the theme/caseworker data requested.

To provide you with the requested information, we would need to review the
entire 3,426 complaints received in 2016-17 and extract the information
requested. We estimate that to carry out a manual search would take us
over the appropriate limit of 2.5 working days. The appropriate limit for
the cost of complying with a Freedom of Information request is set out at
section 3 of the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate
Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, and for the PHSO the amount is £450 (18
hours x £25). Therefore I have refused your request in line with section
12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

If you are unhappy with the way I have handled your information request it
is open to you to request an internal review. You can do this by sending
an email to [1][Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman request email]. You will need to
specify what the nature of the issue is and we can consider the matter
further. Beyond that, it is open to you to complain to the Information
Commissioner’s Office ([2]www.ico.org.uk).

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Otto

Freedom of Information / Data Protection Team

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

E: [Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman request email]

W: [3]www.ombudsman.org.uk

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